Custom 500/Application Errors

Rails Deployment
1

Hi, I’m working on creating custom 500 errors in rails 2.1. Specifically
I’m trying to send an email with the exception every time an application
error occurs.

So I follow these instructions:

http://wiki.rubyonrails.org/rails/pages/HandlingPreControllerErrors

It tells me to put an error handler in /lib/ then require it in
environment.rb.

HOWEVER, when I past it’s code, creating something called an
“ActionController”, I can no longer start mongrel. Because of
“uninitialized constant ActionController”

Whats the deal?

Please help!

Thank you

2

On Mon, Aug 25, 2008 at 12:34 PM, Alex Williams
[email protected] wrote:

environment.rb.

HOWEVER, when I past it’s code, creating something called an
“ActionController”, I can no longer start mongrel. Because of
“uninitialized constant ActionController”

Whats the deal?

Please help!

Alex,

There are a few options for this. The typical solution is to use the
Exception Notification plugin.

This plugin will let you define email recipients to direct
exceptions/errors to. You can take a look at the README for
instructions on installing and configuring.

Additionally, there are also a few web services that provide APIs that
you can direct exceptions to. I’ve been a beta tester for Exceptional,
which our team is using across five client projects in production
right now with great success. You might look at this as a solution
once they open it up to more customers.

Another new comer to this arena is Hoptoad, which I haven’t had a
chance to play with yet.

Good luck!

Cheers,
Robby

–
Robby R.
Chief Evangelist, Partner

PLANET ARGON, LLC
design // development // hosting

http://www.robbyonrails.com/
aim: planetargon

+1 503 445 2457
+1 877 55 ARGON [toll free]
+1 815 642 4068 [fax]

3

Robby R. wrote:

On Mon, Aug 25, 2008 at 12:34 PM, Alex Williams
[email protected] wrote:

environment.rb.

HOWEVER, when I past it’s code, creating something called an
“ActionController”, I can no longer start mongrel. Because of
“uninitialized constant ActionController”

Whats the deal?

Please help!

Alex,

There are a few options for this. The typical solution is to use the
Exception Notification plugin.

This plugin will let you define email recipients to direct
exceptions/errors to. You can take a look at the README for
instructions on installing and configuring.

Additionally, there are also a few web services that provide APIs that
you can direct exceptions to. I’ve been a beta tester for Exceptional,
which our team is using across five client projects in production
right now with great success. You might look at this as a solution
once they open it up to more customers.

Another new comer to this arena is Hoptoad, which I haven’t had a
chance to play with yet.

Good luck!

Cheers,
Robby

–
Robby R.
Chief Evangelist, Partner

PLANET ARGON, LLC
design // development // hosting

http://www.planetargon.com/
http://www.robbyonrails.com/
aim: planetargon

+1 503 445 2457
+1 877 55 ARGON [toll free]
+1 815 642 4068 [fax]

Thank you for the Fast response. I am trying to install
exception_notifier. Now it isn’t working, but I have a feeling it’s
something simple I just don’t know about.

I downloaded exception_notifier and put it in my plugins folder like the
reset of 'em are. I pasted the line:

include ExceptionNotifiable

in my application folder as asked.

then I added this to environment.rb:

ExceptionNotifier.exception_recipients = %w([email protected]
[email protected])

Essentially I was just testing defaults. However, I receive the error
“uninitialized constant ExceptionNotifier”

So what do I need to do to get ExceptionNotifier working? It may be
something I simply don’t understand about installing plugins this way.

Thank you I hope hear from you.

4

Robby R. wrote:

On Mon, Aug 25, 2008 at 2:05 PM, Alex Williams
[email protected] wrote:

Robby
http://www.planetargon.com/

I downloaded exception_notifier and put it in my plugins folder like the
reset of 'em are. I pasted the line:

include ExceptionNotifiable

in my application folder as asked.

Just to clarify… you meant application controller?

Essentially I was just testing defaults. However, I receive the error
“uninitialized constant ExceptionNotifier”

Hmm, I don’t think that you need to require this in your
environment.rb. It might not be initializing the plugin.

Robby

–
Robby R.
Chief Evangelist, Partner

PLANET ARGON, LLC
design // development // hosting

http://www.planetargon.com/
http://www.robbyonrails.com/
aim: planetargon

+1 503 445 2457
+1 877 55 ARGON [toll free]
+1 815 642 4068 [fax]

Yes application controller, sorry :slight_smile:

I’m follow the instructions from the website you posted. Here they are:

First, include the ExceptionNotifiable mixin in whichever controller you
want
to generate error emails (typically ApplicationController):

class ApplicationController < ActionController::Base
include ExceptionNotifiable
…
end

Then, specify the email recipients in your environment:

ExceptionNotifier.exception_recipients = %w([email protected]
[email protected])

And that’s it! The defaults take care of the rest.

But again it isn’t initializing “ExceptionNotifier”, so what should I
do?

I put the download right into the plugins folder so it looks like:

/plugins/exception_notfier/
lib
test
views
INIT.rb
README

5

On Mon, Aug 25, 2008 at 2:05 PM, Alex Williams
[email protected] wrote:

Robby
http://www.planetargon.com/

I downloaded exception_notifier and put it in my plugins folder like the
reset of 'em are. I pasted the line:

include ExceptionNotifiable

in my application folder as asked.

Just to clarify… you meant application controller?

Essentially I was just testing defaults. However, I receive the error
“uninitialized constant ExceptionNotifier”

Hmm, I don’t think that you need to require this in your
environment.rb. It might not be initializing the plugin.

Robby

–
Robby R.
Chief Evangelist, Partner

PLANET ARGON, LLC
design // development // hosting

http://www.robbyonrails.com/
aim: planetargon

+1 503 445 2457
+1 877 55 ARGON [toll free]
+1 815 642 4068 [fax]

6

For anyone who happens across this searching for an answer (as I was)
the solution is to restart the server. Seemed to do the trick in my
case.

7

Any ideas Robby?